In death, the enigmatic former guitarist for the progressive 70s British rock group Sky, remains as elusive as ever.

By Friday, tributes had started to filter through social media as whispers of the beloved Australian musician's demise spread through Perth's tight-knit recording studio community.

It is understood Peek had succumbed to cancer in a Perth hospice this week, aged 66.

However, family and close friends appear to have done everything possible to keep his passing a guarded secret.

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A move perhaps motivated by fear of those Peek burnt financially.

But for many, Peek would be remembered as a mentor, a musical genius willing to give those around him a hand up in the music business.

"Kevin was always a very mysterious character," said Soundbyte Studios director Julian Douglas-Smith who worked as a sound engineer for Peek from the late 80s to the early 90s.

Adelaide-born Peek had returned to Australia after a successful career on the British rock scene and taken up part ownership over the West Perth studio.

His stories were littered with names like Elton John, Keith Richards, Tom Jones and Cliff Richard.

Any situation could be reduced to a witty one-liner when Peek was around.

It was like working for Benny Hill.

"It was like working for Benny Hill," Douglas-Smith said. "It was just bizarre.

"You could never have a serious conversation with him - he was always laughing."

It was the 80s and Peek was a legitimate international rock star, people would have done anything to be close to him.

"He was larger than life," Douglas-Smith said. "He was a true eccentric and an incredibly talented musician."

"I think a lot of people were enamoured by him and taken in by the fact that he was a rock star.

"Even by the late 80s Sky was still a very well-known band and I think a lot of people jumped on that bandwagon because they wanted to be close to Kevin."

By 1994 Peek had landed himself in jail, serving three years for an elaborate factoring fraud scheme, run out of that same studio.

He was again on fraud charges at the time of his death, more than 200 of them, regarding his relationship with an import-export business.

Prosecutors were poised to argue the business had been a classic multi-million dollar ponzi scheme.

Peek had vehemently denied the charges and was bracing to go to trial later this year.

"It's been an absolute disaster for everybody, for all of us," Peek said outside court in 2011.

"I'm left with nothing out of it as well; it's just a very strange sort of set of circumstances."

But those charges were dropped by a District Court of WA judge after an application by Peek's lawyer that he was no longer fit to stand trial on Monday.

That same lawyer was unaware of his death as late as Wednesday, according to their office.

Regardless, friends, colleagues and fans had started posting their condolences on social media websites on Tuesday.

Even they seemed unsure about whether the rumours were true.

"Hearing a rumour that Kevin Peek has died. I hope it's not true," wrote Mark Hamilton.

"Wonderful guitar, wonderful guitar player."

"RIP KEVIN PEEK," Rare Records wrote on their page.

The line was echoed by Eric Adelfred in Denmark and Andy Habzansky, a retired steel mill worker in Chicago.

The Facebook page of Tony Rivers who worked with Peek on Mike Hugg's 1973 album Stress and Strain attracted an outpouring of sorrow at the news.

"Another sad loss today, and he is another ex Cliff [Richard] band member who now joins the 'February Club' Australian Kevin Peek passed away today, I don't know anything about it I just read it on Brian Bennett's FB page," Mr Rivers wrote on Tuesday.

"Kevin was around in my early days with Cliff, a gentle giant a tall soft spoken man, played beautiful acoustic guitar on some of Cliff's recordings.

"A lovely man...RIP Kevin Peek."

Notably, no death notices or obituaries had appeared in Peek's home state of WA.

There were whispers of an intimate burial in a southern Perth suburb on Friday, where it is understood about 30 close friends and family mourned his passing.

An employee of the funeral home responsible for the former rock star's service would only say "I'm sorry I can't release any information about that".